Riqis Inna
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: Walking home during a thunderstorm, a flash of lightning and a scorched, broken tree lead young Danny on a mental journey into the delicate balance that exists in his life and what that balancing act means for him, as well as the one born of his genetics.


**Disclaimer:**_ Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "Rainbow in the Dark" is the property of Ronnie James Dio and Vertigo Records, a division of Mercury Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

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The title of this story, _Riqis Inna_, is Gothic for "Darkness Within". And for those of you in need of a short World History lesson – the Goths were a group of ancient Germanic people who lived during the 3rd to 5th centuries and who had kingdoms south of the Baltic Sea and in parts of the Roman Empire. So, no, modern goths have NOT come up with their own language.

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Thunder pounded along the cityscape, reverberating through the walls of the buildings, resounding in the chasms between the structures, echoing across Amity Park. Missiles of clear liquid launched from the shaded clouds far above, pounding the world with a relentless fury, and all who had a grip on their sanity huddled in the warmth and security of their homes, refusing to go outside.

Amidst this tempest, however, was a single person, in full grip of his mental faculties, caught by chance and dreadful luck in the clamoring squall. Ebony hair matted to his face by the raging water, clothes dampened and ruined, blue eyes shielded by one arm against the downpour, he trudged slowly onward, his goal the comfort of dry clothes and a warm bed.

One might fear for the young man, but a child in the eyes of many, caught in this storm. If the drenching was not enough to concern someone who saw him, the wind had begun to whip into a frenzy, slicing through the streets with force enough to shear branches off of trees. Thoroughly soaked, he still only weighed a meager hundred and three pounds, his body constantly batted around by the maelstrom, and his steps became more and more weighed down with each passing moment.

There was little fear, however, for this particular boy, in both his mind and that of the residents of this quaint city, for this child was none other than Daniel Fenton, Danny to his friends, often addressed by his chosen moniker of Danny Phantom. You see, the young sixteen-year-old trapped in this liquid nightmare is half-ghost, and though he is tired and weak, far from the ability to access those blessed ghost powers, his body temperature is naturally lower than most humans, and the curtain of rain he is meandering through is actually warm to him, a comfort of sorts.

A freak storm for what had been a comfortable August day promised much-needed rain as well as the discomfort of high humidity in conjunction with the mild heat that hovered over the land, and only by the misfortune of an encounter with Skulker had he been caught outside when the heavens opened up. Hit by a powerful ray of energy, he had managed to get the hunter locked in the Thermos before the ectoplasmic surge crawling over his body shorted out his powers, and he had fallen, fully human, into the hedges surrounding the west gate of the city's park.

Touching the icy core of his ghost half within him with airy fingers, he calmed himself, feeling the steady pulse of strength locked within, waiting patiently for the stun of Skulker's weapon to wear off. So often he'd found himself like this, stripped of access to his powers for one reason or another, that he often feared that he'd lose his ghost half to a permanent ethereal paralysis.

**When there's lightning**

**You know it always brings me down**

A bolt of lightning cut through the hazy night sky, lighting up the street for a split second, and Danny's eyes turned upward, watching as the last tendrils of the volatile line of electricity faded away. Wrapping his arms around himself tightly, his head turned towards the ground, eyes hidden from the world by a screen of sodden sable, the youth continued his long journey home.

Another block closer to the warmth of home, and his senses suddenly fired into overdrive, the first hints of his ghost powers returning. This excess of sensory data was a sudden surprise, the sound of the liquescent discordance roaring in his ears, the muted shades of a monotone world thrown into stark degrees of contrast, his eyes lighting green as he struggled to adjust to the sudden change in perception.

'**Cause it's free and I see that it's me**

**Who's lost and never found**

The burst of strengthened awareness had caused him to pause, but had, in some ways, saved him from harm. Turning his eyes upward for just a moment, seeking to speed up the return of clarity to his enhanced vision, he saw the careening bolt of aerial fire worm its way between cloud and ground, the tree standing only seven feet in front of him shorn in two, the dampened wood steaming as the severed boughs attempted to ignite, embers instantaneously quashed by the deluge. The half of the tree facing the street, damaged and caught by the irrevocable pull of gravity, fell to the street with a crash, narrowly avoid both the cars parked nearby.

Continuing on his way now that the arboreal trauma was over, he shook his head softly, trying desperately to shake the images that had come to his mind as he had stood watching nature play out its strange dance before him.

**I cry out for magic**

**I feel it dancing in the light**

The tree, like him, had become two distinct entities, one strong, rooted in the earth, the other wild and unrestrained by a chance occurrence. The lightning strike, a charge of powerful electricity – both he and the tree had suffered similar fates, and both had been forced along two paths. Like the half of the tree that had collapsed between the two cars, his ghost half was something that could destroy at will, yet he reined it in, kept the feral entity in check by his own morality. A slight deviation from his carefully-maintained constraint could cause him to fall into a pit from which there would be no escape. The same tilt to the tree would have caused massive damage to whichever car it hit.

This was the first time that a storm had ever brought fear to the child, and he shivered despite the warmth the weather provided him. He had witnessed, first-hand, the very embodiment of what his powers could do if he ever diverted from the narrow path he walked.

**It was cold**

**Lost my hold to the shadows of the night**

Memories and thoughts flooded his consciousness, visions of a future that had been, for a time, inescapable, a future plagued by the bloodshed of the innocent victims. He had fallen from his righteous track, broken by the loss of those he loved and cared for, and he had become something hideous and terrible. He attacked for the love of pain, a sadist to the furthest degree, and he found pleasure in the agony of those who had committed no wrong save for being alive. He fed on terror, drank the rich toxins of despair, sustained himself through the sights and sounds of unabashed torment.

**No sight of the morning coming**

**You've been left on your own**

**Like a rainbow in the dark**

**A rainbow in the dark**

Despite the promise made in a time that no longer occurred, he knew that there was no true way to escape that horrendous future other than to maintain this precarious equilibrium. He had sworn to his family and friends – and Mr. Lancer – that he would not become like the being who sought their destruction. Though it was a possible future, it was one that, like all the millions and millions of possible ways his life might turn out, was not indelibly set in stone. He could change the outcome and, with Clockwork's aid, changed it he had.

Lost in his thoughts, he only barely noticed the front stoop of his house on his left, and he turned his head slightly, verifying that he was, indeed, home. Knocking roughly on the wooden door as he reached the top step, he shook his hair, trying to free some of the captured fluid from his raven locks before someone opened the door.

A second surge of energy careened through him, and he felt the fringes of his power course back through him. Concentrating, he brought up a thin shield, the lime-tinted barrier holding back the oncoming rain, allowing him a moment's respite, and he smiled softly as his mother opened the door, setting a small silver basin down in front of him. He stepped into the container, turning his body intangible little by little, draining the rainwater off of himself completely. As the lowering ring of immateriality hit his knees, he stopped it, stepping back out onto the front porch, waiting for his mother to dump the basin into the kitchen sink as it was filled nearly to brimming already. She returned moments later, and the remaining water was released from him as he hovered slightly above the silver container, and he walked, now dry, into the house. As his mother closed and locked the door, he finally dropped the shield that still stood against the storm, and the familiar patter of rain returned against that portion of the house.

Silently ascending the stairs, Danny grabbed a change of clothes, still insistent on getting out of his current garb. Heading into the bathroom, he locked the door behind him, dropping his clean clothes on the side of the sink. Kicking and yanking at various pieces of clothing in his exhausted state, the futility of undressing quickly became clear, and he simply phazed out of the garments, clambering into the shower and turning on the water.

**Do your demons**

**Do they ever let you go?**

Letting the water, soothing and soft compared to the torrent outside, flow over his skin, he slowly lowered himself to the floor of the shower, crossing his arms over his knees and resting his chin against his forearms. Eyes closed slowly, and he let his thoughts flow, seeking to release the pain of the memories through the cleansing water.

The looks of fear on their faces flashed clear in his mind, and he trembled, seeking to hide his mind from these sights. He knew they would never come to pass, yet the idea that he could have done that at all bore down on his heart as a heavy weight. His dark side had come from the unity of Phantom and Plasmius, something now impossible with Vlad having fled the planet after his failed bid to stop the Disasteroid. Anxiety followed him despite this, the notion that the darker side was something not entirely of Vlad Plasmius' doing constantly nipping at the back of his mind.

**When you try, do they hide deep inside?**

**Is it someone that you know?**

Standing, he began to wash himself, letting the scent of the soap and the running water carry his worries down the drain.

Nearly half an hour after his return to the Fenton house, Danny came out of the bathroom clad in black jeans and a grey tee, his bare feet softly padding against the carpet as he walked to his room, his arms laden with the clothes he'd removed earlier. Lacking the hands, because of his burden, to open his bedroom door, he simply phazed in, dropping his clothes into the hamper by the dresser. Walking over to his bed, he cast a sidelong glance at his computer, considering only for a moment getting on and chatting with his friends. Shaking his head, he opted to collapse onto his bed, relaxing despite the constant turning of his thoughts.

Most of the people he interacted with everyday had no idea of the power he contained, the true strength inherent with the fact that he was a hybrid being. Most did not understand what it meant to be as such, and he was sure that only one other still on this planet truly understood what it meant to be forced onto such a narrow pathway.

**You're just a picture**

**You're an image caught in time**

Forged in hate and animosity at his failures, Vlad had created a clone of Danny, a young female half-ghost who, in her early days, served him as a slave daughter. With his bringing Danny into the picture, Danielle had been shown the truth of her 'father' – his quest for the perfect half-ghost son, his refusal to accept her as anything more than another failed experiment. She, like her genetic progenitor, had seen the darkness that had encroached on the elder hybrid's heart, feared the shade that consumed him, sought to control the vile energies inherent in their powers.

In time, he knew that young Danni would seek him out, look to him for guidance when it came to the use of her ghost powers, and he would help her walk that sword's blade between light and shadow. He would show her the value of the hero's way, despite the negative attention often garnered for such, and show her that the only way was the way he'd chosen.

**We're a lie**

**You and I**

**We're words without a rhyme**

As his thoughts revolved around his 'cousin', realization of a deeper truth came to him. She had been born of his genetics, his ghost form, though why she'd been created female still escaped him. However that unnatural process had gone about, she was truly Danny, be it a younger, female version, and in that, she, too, bore the taint that would lead her down the same path as he had once traversed. His possible future was also hers, and he would have to find a way to keep her from falling as he had.

A peel of thunder followed an unseen strike of lightning, and Danny rolled over, facing his window, listening as the unrepentant storm battered the small city. Suddenly acutely aware of the truth, Danny found himself guardian of two souls, keeper of the balance for two, rather than just one. She would have to be kept in the way of good as he forced himself every day.

**No sight of the morning coming**

**You've been left on your own**

**Like a rainbow in the dark**

**Just a rainbow in the dark**

Something he would never admit to his adoring public, to his friends, to his family, was the creeping voice in the back of his mind, feeding on his negativity, tempting him with power, respect earned through fear, strength to be more than what the world wanted him to be. It promised pain to his enemies, death to those who crossed him, the strength of mind and body to reign over humanity as he deserved to. As a half-ghost, it enticed, he was greater than all the humans. He was more powerful, more capable, than any human fool could ever hope to be. All these whispered words, silken wraiths of subtle promise, had to be shut out every waking moment of his life. True, he had accepted the fact that he was, indeed, something more because of his nature, but to use that in any way other than what he did now was a violation of all he stood for.

**When I see lightning**

**You know it always brings me down**

'**Cause it's free and I see that it's me**

**Who's lost and never found**

His thoughts soon turned to his girlfriend, a wonderful young woman whose presence in his life had been the reason for this gift of power. She was the one who'd convinced him, twice, that going into the Portal would be a good idea. Twice he'd walked, on her advice and goading, into the non-functioning hole in the wall, his hand grazing over the switch that turned the machine on, and both times, he'd been gifted with his powers, becoming Danny Phantom. And she, too, was against the sacrificing of his powers. She'd been there when his parents had been arrested, and she was against the removal of his powers from the beginning. Even after the explosion had taken from him the specter within, she was at his side, though she was there only as a friend, hurt by his unwillingness to shoulder the burden he'd once held so proudly. Only once he'd jettisoned his friends and sister from the Speeder and the machine had shattered around him did he realize his folly. Somehow, there had been a force out there, watching over him, for as the power of all the ghosts washed over him, his ghost core, sealed beyond reach far within him, grasped at the flood of energy, bursting the fetters of ghost shielding that had kept it locked tightly away, and Danny Phantom stood once more.

**Feel the magic**

**I feel it floating in the air**

**But it's fear**

**And you'll hear it calling you**

**Beware**

**Look out**

Another bolt of lightning struck in the distance, and the peel of thunder was not far behind, and Danny hugged his pillow tightly, wishing silently for the blessed hollow realm of sleep to claim him. He was tired of these thoughts, of having to face the truth of what he was, and he wanted nothing more than to just ignore the constant string of questions that his mind produced.

**There's no sight of the morning coming**

**There's no sign of the day**

**You've been left on your own**

**Like a rainbow**

Yet, nothing could be done to stop the tidal wave that had been started with the tree that fell on the walk home, and his thoughts, caught somewhere between Danni and Sam, suddenly wandered into the idea of Danny's responsibility should he ever father a half-ghost child. Groaning into his pillow, he shut his eyes against the world that gave form to these questions, even as the answers started coming to him.

**Like a rainbow in the dark**

**You're a rainbow in the dark**

**Just a rainbow in the dark**

Though he and Sam were only seventeen, and the thought of children was far from their minds, Danny couldn't help but worry about what would happen should his ectoplasmic genetics be able to affect his offspring. Would the trait be weakened by Sam being fully human, reducing their children to being merely a quarter ghost? Or would the gene be treated as recessive, able to be inherited through chance, leaving some of his kids with ghost powers, others with none? He pushed the thoughts away from the forefront of his mind, not sure where Sam stood on the topic of kids. As the case was, the only time he'd ever seen her take well to having young ones to take care of was when she'd become the overshadowed 'mother' of Undergrowth's ghost plants. Well, and the flour sack incident, but as it was a sack of flour, he didn't really count it.

**No sight of the morning**

**You're a rainbow in the dark**

A familiar cold sensation swept over Danny, and he sat up, closing his eyes in order to concentrate. Reaching within, he exerted the power to initiate the change, feeling his body fall from the human plane, grasping the cold undeath of his ghost form. Opening his eyes, he looked at his white-gloved hand, smiling faintly, his shimmering jade eyes casting a pale light over his room. Reverting, assured that he had fully recovered from the blast, Danny was finally able to drift off into a blissful, dreamless sleep, the fear of what may be clouded over by the security of what already was.


End file.
